Trump warned Russia against any interference in elections

Russian electoral interference in the US elections continues to hinder the rapprochement with Moscow wanted by Donald Trump: the White House said Tuesday that the US president had issued a warning to the head of Russian diplomacy Sergey Lavrov, who immediately denied .

President Trump, who received the Russian minister, "warned against any attempt by Russia to interfere in the US elections," said the US executive.

This stance takes on particular importance when one considers the past procrastination of the Republican billionaire on this burning question, despite the formal consensus of American intelligence that concluded that Moscow has interfered in the 2016 presidential election, which it has won. .

But Sergei Lavrov denied directly receiving the warning from the former New York businessman.

"In fact we did not even talk about elections," he said at a press conference at the Russian Embassy in Washington. He then seemed to suggest that he had discussed with Donald Trump such a warning issued earlier by American Foreign Minister Mike Pompeo.

"Unfounded" charges

While suspicions of new Russian interference in the US presidential election of 2020 already emerge, Mr. Pompeo has publicly warned, alongside his Russian counterpart, that it would be "unacceptable".

"If Russia or any other foreign player took steps to undermine our democratic processes, we would fight back," the US Secretary of State told the press, as if to better repel criticism from all those in the class American politicians, who take a dim view of the red carpet rolled out to the Russian minister.

Sergei Lavrov once again rejected accusations "without foundation" or "proofs".

The will of rapprochement expressed by Donald Trump as by his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin faces for three years these accusations of Russian interference.

In May 2017, photos of Sergei Lavrov's previous visit to the Oval Office, broadcast by the Russian state agency Tass, showed a smiling Donald Trump. What cause an uproar in the Democratic camp in the wake of the dismissal by the US President of the FBI boss James Comey - an act then denounced as an attempt to obstruct the investigation on suspicions of collusion between the team of the candidate Trump and the Kremlin.

As a snub to its critics, it is in the same Oval Office as the 45 ^th President of the United States on Tuesday received the Russian Minister, away from the media.

"Last time, they laughed about Trump's dismissal of Comey. Today, they can celebrate the victory of Russian propaganda, "commented on Twitter a leader of the Democratic Party in Congress, Adam Schiff.

"Solve" the Ukrainian conflict

Sergei Lavrov's visit coincided with the Democrats' presentation of the historical indictment against Donald Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of congressional proceedings in another case of electoral interference.

This time, even if he denies it forcefully, the White House tenant is accused of pressuring Ukraine to investigate his Democratic political opponents in the run-up to the US presidential election. The trumpiste camp puts forward an unsupported thesis that it would be Kiev, not Moscow, which would have interfered in the 2016 ballot, and rather in favor of the Democrats.

According to several experts, they resume Russian propaganda. Sergei Lavrov also reaffirmed that this thesis demonstrated "the absurdity" of accusations against Moscow.

During his long meeting with Mike Pompeo, the two men spoke well of Ukraine ... but about the peace process, the day after the Paris summit where Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, under the auspices of France and Germany have renewed dialogue between their countries without really overcoming their differences.

According to the White House, Donald Trump "called on Russia to resolve the conflict with Ukraine." Mike Pompeo insisted on the respect of the Minsk agreements of 2015, and on the fact that "Crimea belonged to Ukraine".

The two ministers also disagreed on the sensitive issue of arms control.

The American reaffirmed his willingness to include China in the negotiations on nuclear strategic weapons, without deciding on the Russian proposal to renew without waiting the bilateral treaty New Start which expires at the beginning of 2021.